There's No Place Like Home!

We made it back home from Texas tonight. Our drive home was much easier than our drive there. It only took us 12.5 hours to get home and I don't think the kids even complained one time. In fact, we didn't even need to use the DVD player once on the return trip. They sang songs, took naps, played card games, told jokes, and read books. It was a very pleasant trip.

We had a very nice Thanksgiving with Rob's family. His grandpa will be starting chemo tomorrow and so it was nice for us to all be together before he has to start that. Rob's mom also seemed to be doing okay. Well, at least she didn't appear to be any worse and she seems to be more comfortable than before. She isn't able to communicate and so it is impossible to really know if she knows what is going on, but the second she hears Rob's voice her eyes open wide. We believe that she does know that he was there.

As far as the kids were concerned, they had the time of their lives. They were given rides in the go-cart by their cousin, Mallory, and they climbed trees, and they chased chickens and roosters around the property. I think they had more fun chasing those darn roosters than they did doing anything else. Over the weekend we also drove out to see where their daddy went to school and we visited with some old friends of ours. On Saturday, we took all of the kids to the movie to see Bolt.

With all of the running that Emily did this weekend, she sure had a lot of falling problems. Either she is starting another growth spurt right now and it is about to make her CP appear to be worse, or she just was having some bad luck and running on uneven ground this weekend. The poor thing must have fallen in the muddy or wet grass a dozen times. At one point, she told her daddy that she was "born with a stupid foot" because it can't go up and down stairs very well. Rob said that it broke his heart and he was able to make her feel better, but I don't know exactly what he told her. This is another reason why I think it must be growth spurt time right now.

And I can't end this entry without a funny little story. Ethan and Emily were talking with all of their cousins about sports and stuff that the kids have done and then we started talking about sports that they will play as they get older in school. I asked Ethan if he would want to play football in high school and he said "NO WAY!" He said that it looks just too dangerous. Emily was all serious then and said that she knew what she wanted to do, but she didn't think they offered it in school. I asked her what she wanted to do and she said that she wanted to be a "ROCK STAR!" It took every bit of control I had not to laugh until I cried. That is just too darn cute!!!! I can just imagine them offering Rock Star classes as an elective in high school. Now, wouldn't that be a fun way to keep kids in school?!?!

Here are some pictures of the rooster chasing, tree climbing and go-cart riding.